Faux Silk Flowers

 For Easter weekend i spent some time with my sister's family.  My neice loves to do crafts with her Auntie Diane.  Together we made this tray  full of faux silk flowers.  I got the idea from my friend K, who made similar flowers for our altered book swap last year.

 To start I purchased 4" wide fabric from Joann's.  the only criteria is that it MUST be synthetic.  I chose cheap polyester lining and some satiny shiny fabrics, and some sheers and tulle-like selections in an assortment of spring colours.  I chose several varieties of each colour to blend for the flowers.  I think altogether this cost me about $20.

 The fabric was cut into circles - about 4", 3" and 2" in diameter.  Some were further cut into petal shapes.  They don't need to be perfect - i just folded the fabric in quarters and eye-balled it.

 To create the curled petals - you need a candle.  the little jar type were the safest ones we could find.  It goes without saying you need to be CAREFUL!  We each had a metal cookie sheet upon which to place our fabric petals after melting the edges.  You DO NOT put the fabric directly in the flame. It starts to melt and curl when it gets close.  If you drop one (as i did a few times) luckily for me the flame just went out, rather than burning the house down.  We used little olive tongs to hold the fabric.  You could use a clothes pin.  You just melt the edges a bit, and then re-position your tongs, then melt the rest. do not touch the melted edge until it cools. (which is pretty quick)

 Once you have an assortment of fabrics and colours you can stack them up and create flowers.  We used a little button in the center - but you could use beads.

 Look how pretty they turned out!

 You can use a few layers - like the pink one above, for a delicate rose effect.

 Or use many layers - like the lavendar chrysanthemum style flower above.

 Here you can see blending different colours and fabrics - solid and sheer.

 You could hot glue wire or pipe cleaners on the back to add stems to place your flowers in a vase.

Or just use a safety pin to wear it to work! 

Thanks Erica for a fun crafty afternoon!

parade of roses - an altered book

When i moved to So. Cal. one of my arsty friends suggested the we start a new altered book project.  the theme could be whatever we wanted - but somehow related to los angeles, hollywood, the beach boys - or something along those lines.  I picked up a couple of books in a south pasadena antique store down the street from Zinnia - my new favorite store in the area!

Jim  and i were still undecided on where to live - but i thought if we end up getting a place in pasadena - then i could do something with this book.  You cannot go anywhere in the area without seeing reference to the Rose Bowl, the Rose Bowl parade or the the infamous rose bowl flea market.

(no - i have not been yet.  Seems sacreligous to be buying stuff when my dear husband is making daily trips to goodwill to off load 20+ years of collected treasures he unearthed in garage)  but wait - just wait....)

Anyway - here is the new altered book:

I have very little supplies here with me - so most of my materials came from fashion magazines.  

this will be the sign in page at the back of the book.
This is the back cover, probably needs something else.  i glued rose print tissue over the grid of rose illustrations - but it isn't great as is.  oh well - a work in progress!

Valentine countdown...three to go

Here is my 11th valentine from Olivia. It is a sweet dark pink card with raised flowers. I just love the touch of sparkle on the winged heart. Thanks Olivia!